Skylines Are ‘Crazy in Love’ With Curves

The likes of Beyonce, Kim Kardashian and Australia’s own Iggy Azalea could be the inspiration behind a new wave in curvaceous architecture.

A new Melbourne skyscraper by architecture firm Elenberg Fraser is paying tribute to the curves that make Queen Bey aesthetically memorable.

The 68-storey tower is inspired by Beyonce’s "Ghost" music video, in which the singer is featured in a black cloth that swirls and consumes her to showcase her curvaceous and feminine silhouette.

“Art and science? You betcha," the architecture firm says of the building, which will 'twist and turn.'

“This project is the culmination of our significant research into how to best work into individual site and climatic constraints, bought together using our new parametric modelling techniques."

"The complex form – a vertical cantilever – is actually the most effective way to redistribute the building mass, giving the best results in terms of structural dispersion frequency oscillation and wind requirements."

The project, entitled Premier Tower, will rise at the coveted location of 134 Spencer Street, directly in front on Southern Cross Station. It will be a mixed-use development with 660 apartments, 160 hotel rooms and retail space.

This isn’t the first time the female figure has inspired architecture.

In 2012, MAD completed twin towers in Mississauga, Canada that locals nicknamed the Marilyn Monroe towers for their voluptuous and curvaceous design.

The two residential buildings, called Absolute World Towers, won the Emporis Skyscraper Award in 2013, with the jury impressed by the building’s ability to twist organically by up to eight degrees per floor.

Downtown Hollywood is also receiving a new curvaceous 17-storey condo tower, while SHoP's Rental Towers on First Avenue in New York are currently under construction. These towers are set to demonstrate curves as the building rises, closer to the top.

So just as curves have gained momentum on the red carpet over recent years, they're also been documented as an aesthetic architectural trend.

“Curved buildings can point to nature, whereas angular buildings contrast with it,” Paul Silvia, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of North Caroline at Greensboro told CNN in 2013. “Instead of blending into the environment or evoking natural themes, they stand apart from it by using one of the few shapes you never see in nature – a perfect box."

Stephen Bayley, a British architecture critic and the former chief executive of London’s Design Museum, weighed in the conversation adding that there is a sexual element to the curvy aesthetic.

“For reasons hidden in the foundations of the brain’s architecture, a curve, because it suggests warmth and well-being and harmony, touches a more profound part of the psyche than a parallelogram," he said. “Maybe this is because a woman’s breasts are generally not right-angled.”

Whatever the reasons for the new style, there is little question skylines are getting less angular and yes, perhaps a bit sexier.